Talk To Your Cinema, Via SMS

Talk To Your Cinema, Via SMS

SYDNEY, Australia, Aug. 11 /PRNewswire/ -- A WORLD FIRST - Australian leading cinema chains launch an SMS information service that understands plain English requests sent via text.

Village Cinemas, Greater Union and Birch, Carroll & Coyle cinemas, leading Australian cinemas, recently launched an SMS movie enquiry and session time service that allows natural language processing (NLP) of requests sent in via text messaging.

Users of the service will be able to send in plain English requests via SMS to the number 1999-FILM (or 1999-3456) and receive the latest information on movie releases, session times and cinema information. For example, a user could send in "Whats on?", "What time is Wedding Crashers showing at Crown?", "Where can I see Wedding Crashers?" or "What is showing at Crown on Saturday?"

The service will then utilise information it already knows about the movies, theatres, dates and English syntax to make an accurate assessment of the user requests, and then return the results accordingly.

"People are increasingly technologically savvy and relying on their mobiles almost as a life-connection device. So it is relevant and important to provide our customers with a convenient way to find out when and what movies are showing at their favourite cinemas." Said Jordana Jensen, Village Cinemas Marketing Director.

The 1999-FILM service is provided by START Corporation. The SMS natural language processing capability is based on START's TextWise(TM) patent-pending SMS-NLP technology. START Corporation is a provider of Enterprise SMS solutions.

"As a pioneer in launching complex SMS services, we at START feel that we need to create a common industry standard so that consumers will find these types of SMS services easy-to-use and easy-to-remember. The pilot results show that the NLP input method returns recognition rates in excess of 90%, more than quadrupling its keyword-based counterpart," said Mr Michael Mak, CEO of START Corporation.

"The same technology can be easily deployed to book movie tickets, take pizza orders, make payments and take call-centre enquiries. For example, users can simply text in 'Book two tickets at 2pm' or 'Call me about my account'. The possibilities are limitless," said Mak.

The service has successfully completed a 6-month pilot, and is available to all Australian mobile subscribers.

www.village.com.au

www.greaterunion.com.au

www.startcorp.com

For futher information contact:
Michael Mak
+612-9954-4411

Source: Start Corporation

CONTACT: Michael Mak, +612-9954-4411, for Start Corporation

Web site: http://www.village.com.au/
http://www.greaterunion.com.au/
http://www.startcorp.com/

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